Thread: What are you working on?

Yeah..I was real happy with that repair too, Rez.
I think Josh was even happier.!!

That sounds like a more structurally sound repair than trying to stick the 2 halves together with glue. If they are in fact ivory (which, honestly I'm pretty sure they are. I've just grown to doubt myself here) then I want a good lasting solution. Thanks guys.

I really need to finish some projects before I start anymore.


I just get so psyched when I get a new one in I can't keep my hands off it.

As Roy said, ivory was always pinned collarless.
If you have a loupe or magnifying glass, bone quite often have small pores and ivory has a cross grain. Hard to describe. Also always very thin and uniform.
Almost looks plastic.
They look like bone just going by the colour and shape.

Ive got 3 of those gem razors. 2 have bone scales. Plus two are from different hardware stores. Great razors but im still voting on bone.

Two are bone. One is celluloid

Originally Posted by Grazor

As Roy said, ivory was always pinned collarless.
If you have a loupe or magnifying glass, bone quite often have small pores and ivory has a cross grain. Hard to describe. Also always very thin and uniform.
Almost looks plastic.
They look like bone just going by the colour and shape.

No pores. Grain almost like wood. Smooth like plastic. Hard like a pearl when rubbed across the teeth. This is just about exactly like the conversation before. Collars or no I'm pretty convinced these are ivory. Maybe I trust my judgement more than I thought but to put it to rest once and for all I'm going to take them to the museum of natural history or to the department of material science at the university (if they ever open again) and have someone verify for certain.

Before going to a government funded agency, it would be wise to reread the latest version of the law pertaining to endangered species and regulations as to what is now banned.
Confiscation is first, and the actual return is iffy at best.
I lost scales that I mailed with documentation that they were able to pass the new requirements but have never been seen again.
JMHO
-Richard

Good advice Richard. Maybe I'll show them to my friend the jeweler first.

Hard to say from the pictures, look at the end, heel and toe with magnification for the Schreger lines.

The dead give away for ivory is the feel, it is smooth and oily feeling, bone can feel smooth but not oily, similar to a polished fingernail.

May be Ivory, just not Elephant ivory, the Schreger lines can tell you.

Be careful showing it around, maybe make some calls first. Some folks get weird about Ivory, a few years ago Fish & Game was going to Antique Stores and flea markets here in So. Califrornia and confiscating anything that looked like Ivory. I know a guy that had several bone razors confiscated, do not think he ever got them back.